No doubt you’ve been following our Ads of the Week articles over the past couple of months brought to you by our team in the U.S. This week we’re changing it up a little bit and bringing you our favorite ads from the Asia Pacific region. Admittedly we are cheating a little by doing more of an ads of the month than week (I’ve had so many favorites over the past few weeks, I wanted to make sure they were all included!) but we hope you enjoy these fun, powerful, colorful and heartfelt ads – Asia style!

We have selected content from three leading multinational brands to demonstrate the effectiveness of localizing to niche markets.

1. Oreo’s Wonderfilled Music Collaboration for Southeast Asia by Carat

We all know the Oreo Wonderfilled anthem – it’s been around for a number of years. This mini-version from 2013, like the cookie, is short and sweet and that jingle is just so catchy!

The Wonderfilled theme has been revisited many times over and each new ad continues to attract millions of views.

In a digital world where the belief is often that content has to be new to be engaging, Oreo’s Wonderfilled campaign shows this not to be true. In fact, Oreo’s memorable tune, and the clever ways it continues to recycle its Wonderfilled content, has fans pining for more.

This could explain why a Southeast Asian Wonderfilled ad, which brought together musicians from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in October, garnered over two million views in its first two weeks.

Produced by Carat, the song forms part of a greater regional Southeast Asia Wonderfilled campaign launched earlier this year. The artists – Malaysian singer-songwriter, Zee Avi, Filipino pop rock band, Up Dharma Down (UDD) and Indonesian vocal group, Gamaliel Audrey Cantika (GAC) then collaborated with Oreo individually to create their own unique songs around the Wonderfilled theme. These were sung in their native languages.

This version from Indonesian group GAC had double the views when it launched in Indonesia in late October, garnering over four million views.

Influencers, or key opinion leaders (KOL), are an important part of many APAC campaigns and it seems to have paid off well for Oreo here as it targets a younger demographic.

2. Mercedes-Benz for China by BBDO China

Mercedes-Benz took a different approach when launching its GLC SUV commercial in China in November, to find the hero’s hero. This TVC again relies on a KOL – in this case, Chinese tennis sensation Li Na. A hero in many people’s eyes.

However the ad has been flipped to focus on her quiet, behind-the-scenes hero, her husband, Jiang Shan.

The target audience is the ‘upgrader’ – consumers entering the lifestage of responsibility – such as parenthood.

The campaign message: ‘built for the hero in you’.

A teaser video led the campaign, asking people who their heroes were. Predictably they cited super heroes like Batman, movie star Bruce Lee and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. But when asked who they would call in an emergency, the majority said it would be a family member like a mother, sister, husband or wife.

The ad has been rolled-out across traditional television channels, online video, print and outdoor advertising. YouTube is not available in China (hence the low views of the two videos above) but has had more than 1 million views on Youku and Tencent’s QQ Video.

3. Decibel of Love by OMD Thailand

Finally, this ad from McDonald’s Thailand just in time for the country’s Father’s Day on December 5.

While this has been localized for the Thai market, you would be hard-pressed to find an audience anywhere in the world, not touched by these children finding ways to tell their deaf fathers, “I love you.”

At over five minutes long, the video has still had almost 2.5 million views since launching on November 26.

“Love speaks louder than words” is the theme of the campaign and follows in the footsteps of the 2014 award winning advertisement from Thai telecommunications provider DTAC. The Power of Love, created by Y & R Thailand, which generated 8 million views in its first week and has gone on to be viewed more than 18 million times over the past year.

What both of these advertisements have in common is the lack of product placement. Sure, there are a number of cleverly inserted McDonald’s logos and products. Or in DTAC’s case, the subtle way the company’s service capabilities are demonstrated through the use of the mobile phone, but ultimately, these ads are not about the brands themselves – but focused on you, the consumer.

And of course, the idea that technology can never replace love, is one slogan we can all relate to in this rapidly transforming world.